What I should have done was respond with my name. That’s what a romantic guy would do – now that the ice was broken. But my ADHD hyperfocus had kicked in, as I struggled to recall whether I’d heard that name before.

“No, I don’t know that name” I said. “Guess not, huh?”

“When did you last come in?”

“It would have been about six weeks ago” I replied, still struggling to remember.

“Well then we don’t know each other. I only started a month ago.”

“Oh” I was disappointed. “Oh well.”

She smiled and left.

Each time she came to the table, to bring the food, the wine and to check to see if everything was okay, she had the brightest smile.

Twirling around in the back of my mind were all of these thoughts.

“Someone that gorgeous with such a great smile probably gets hit on all of the time. Am I going to be another boor, troubling her in her place of work where she can’t get away?”

“I really like my setup at home. I worked hard to achieve the peace of my bachelor domain. How ready am I to give that up?”

“She seems young enough to still want kids. I wonder if I’m open to that?”

I really liked her, but ….. I had all of these reasons why I shouldn’t pursue her. Most of these thoughts were straying outside of the limits of my consciousness, so I wasn’t truly on top of them or even aware. That’s how it is with most things in a person cursed (or blessed, as the case may be) with ADHD.

So I concentrated on reading my book, and on enjoying the meal.

After the bill was paid, and the tip was administered, I stayed, enjoying the music and the book. I sipped on my water, totally engrossed in the story.

She came back after that with a pitcher of water, and that ever-present huge smile. “Would you like some more?”

“Oh that’d be great. Thank you!” I said.

I finished the water.

It wasn’t until I left the place and began walking to the bus terminal that my brain tapped me on the shoulder.

“Doofus” it said. “You realize that she didn’t have to come back with the water, right? She wasn’t smiling for her tip any more – even if that ever was the case.”

I shrugged to myself. I’ve had a number of missed opportunities before. This wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last.

Like this:

If I had a dime for each time someone asked “what’s the point of Twitter, anyway?”, I’d have $3.20 cents.

There’s a possibility I once asked that question myself. I mean, how much can you really say in 140 characters? And what’s the point in reading such pithy offerings? They’re not novels, and you can’t build characters.

People so often dismiss Twitter because of all of the above and more. Add to that comments like “do I really need to know about how awesome your dinner is? Do I want to read about what cute thing your son did today?”

The answer to all of that is obvious: no. No, I don’t need or want to know about any of that.

Despite these objections, I’ve been a long time user and reader of Twitter. Since I’ve had to explain my fascination so many times, it seemed a good idea to blog about it at least once. That way I can just cut and paste the blog link whenever yet another person says “Twitter? Can’t stand it (even though I’ve never used it or even read anything from it). Why would you waste your time?”

One thing you learn when communicating in your workplace is to make sure your main point is contained within the first few lines of your email. People don’t want to have to wade through paragraphs of pre-explanation prior to getting to the point of your message. This is especially true if you want something from your reader.

You can start with something like “I would like you to come in early on Friday to help with the TPS report”. You can then feel free to use a few paragraphs to explain why. They’re free to read it or not as they see fit.

The neat thing is, if they want to say “no”, they’ll have to read through the rest so that they can better understand the request, and build up a compelling reason to decline.

You are used to hearing the phrase “information overload”. There are so many sales pitches, requests for help, and offers to help you enlarge your penis or get bigger breasts (not to mention family and friends forwarding messages with the title “HAHAHA CHECK THIS OUT, BRO!”), that it’s hard to track. And it’s definitely hard to keep focus. Almost everyone suffers from this, thus the need to get straight to the point while sending emails at work.

Twitter doesn’t offer explanation. There’s just simply no room. So you’re left making your point as concisely as possible.

Frankly, with all of the serious news coming out of the internet, I don’t enjoy doing anything serious while on my own time. I rarely write serious stuff on my Facebook wall. And I certainly don’t want to engage in serious Twitter posts.

My secret for using Twitter is: I generally only follow funny people. People with the funniest tweets interest me, especially as they don’t have the room to do a full setup of the joke. I like that. I think it shows a superior wit. And so I not only read them, but try to emulate them as well – using my own jokes of course.

Sometimes I fail miserably, but that’s okay too. It’s just so much fun to try.

As you begin reading some of these people (and dropping the more serious Twitter feeds), you learn a few tricks along the way too. Such as: find out who these funny people are following. Generally, they’re interested in reading other humorous people. Eventually as you begin following those too, you can build up an impressive list of hilarious comedians who make Twitter a truly engaging and fun place to be.

Like this guy:

This isn’t to say that I don’t (ab)use Twitter for my own non-funny reasons either.

It’s a great place to posts links to my reviews for Criminal Minds and NCIS. But mostly I like laughing, and at the middle of a stressful day, it’s great to have access to so many truly fun and funny people.

P.S. I don’t really drink while on the job. At least, not from a flask. (And not because it doesn’t hold enough, either)

Like this:

I never really intend to be late anyway, but normally I am, despite my best efforts to plan ahead of time, for traffic, for getting ready. Despite the understandable outrage of those who are forever punctual, lateness doesn’t represent a lack of respect on my part, nor does it mean I think my time is more important than theirs.

It’s a function of a brain that works in kaleidoscope, rather than lines, the latter of which has starting points and focused destinations. Didn’t find that out until the diagnosis I received a few years ago.

But I digress. This was a rare victory, and I was relieved.

I even had time to relax for a bit. Sit down and watch the automatic doors as they briefly opened, and burped out a few people before closing again.

I could feel my heart starting to race, and found that I could no longer sit. So I stood up and watched the doors, until my little girl sauntered out, smiling.

She rolled her suitcases to the end of the ramp where I stood waiting. Both of us dropped our stuff and we grabbed each other for a huge and tearful hug.

I honestly forgot how long it had been since we last saw each other in person. We keep in contact all the time via phone (and occasionally by Skype) but hadn’t spent time together since, I’m guessing perhaps two years ago, when we went on a camping/canoeing trip together. And where I learned the importance of only camping with a trailer that features a Craftmatic adjustable bed. She on the other hand could camp out on the floor and not be affected. The brat.

After the hug, she stood back and mapped out my face, checking for imperfections. To her delight (and to my tolerant amusement) she found one. There was a single hair growing on my cheek, which it had no business doing. Mind you, there was like, a million of them growing on my chin and beneath my nose. But I guess those were okay, as they were only following instructions. So she plucked that one hair, saying “hold still, Dad. Take a deep breath”

I didn’t. I pluck hairs all the time from errant locations. I’m used to it, and the performance no longer brings tears or even flinching. I smiled. She plucked and missed.

Horrified, she said “oh I’m sorry. Let me try again. Are you okay?”

I nodded, still smiling. She plucked again and this time she got it.

Grooming all done, we turned and began walking. “How are you doing?” I asked. “Are you hungry? Did you get a bite to eat on the plane?”

She thought for a moment. “Well I could use a tea, Dad. Is there a coffee shop nearby?”

There was, and so we went, chattering as if we hadn’t spoken in a year. (Well, she chattered. I added an observation here and there).

Our relationship has always been like that though. We can not talk on the phone for weeks at a time, and when we connect, it’s as if we just spoke yesterday. I never realized how rare that was until encountering some folk who feel rejected if you don’t check in with them in scheduled intervals.

Afterward, and after dumping her suitcases into a limo-SUV (I really don’t know what to call those things: it’s a limo service, but our ride took the form of an SUV), I warned her about my place.

“You’re going to hate it” I said. She looked at me, grinning. We both knew she would be making some changes, even though she would only be there for a few days.

And change it she did. Prior to her arrival, I had the perfect bachelor setup: big-ass plasma TV, front and center, Lazy-boy chair right in front of it. Dolby surround-sound speakers placed in such a way as to make the chair the “sweet spot” for….well, for pretty much everything.

Not exactly like this, but you get the idea.

The sofa was to my right, along the wall.

As soon as we walked in the door, I braced myself. This wouldn’t do. Not at all. And she confirmed it fairly quickly.

She also didn’t like my office setup, which was situated in the dining room. It was too closed off for her liking, and “no one can see the beautiful screensavers – all they can see is the back of the monitors and all of the wiring”.

“No problem” I thought. “It’s just me looking at the stuff, and I really don’t care.”

“Trust me, dad”, she said. “If you don’t like what I do with it, you can put it all back.”

We spent most of her second day there, going to town. I was assigned the task of sorting out the bookcase. I have no idea why I still have a bookcase, actually, since I buy all of my books in e-book format, and have no need of physical books anymore. Right now the bookcase serves as a drop-off point for stuff that lacks a home. Receipts that I haven’t shredded, the odd flyer, pennies and pens that I pick up off of the floor.

My apartment isn’t nearly as bric-a-brac as I’m making it sound. It’s just that when I have something in my hand, and no time to figure out where it goes, the bookcase is my instant repository. I put stuff there, knowing that I’ll get around to sorting it someday.

“Someday” is right. When I started sorting, I found a lot of outdated stuff that belonged in the trash. Stuff I hadn’t seen in a couple of years actually. It was a little embarrassing, particularly since I’ve made it my life’s goal to de-clutter. The protocol is: if you don’t see or use it within a year, you don’t need it.

I had a lot of stuff there that qualified for the green bin. Still do, actually, since I didn’t make that much of a dent in it.

Daughter however did just fine with her tasks – which was pretty much everything else. She shoved everything around, made it all tidy, grabbed whatever twist ties she could to make the entertainment center and desk wiring all serene, if not beautiful. When she ran out of twist ties, I became the scotch tape caddy, doling it out as she needed.

When she was done, my place looked presentable again. The big chair was kitty-corned to the TV set, with the couch forming the other part of the scene. The TV itself was in a corner. And my office space was transformed such that any visitors could clearly see everything I was working on. I don’t plan to have many visitors.

“What do you think, Dad?”

I stood in front of my office desk, looked up at her and gave her a small wave and a smile.

She laughed out loud and went to grab her camera. So I had to hold that pose for a while. Such jocularity loses its pizzazz when you have to pose for it. I think we both knew that.

Our time together ended way too soon. I saw her off the next day, when she left me to go visit her mother for the other two days she would spend in Ontario. And now she’s off to western Canada, there to provide massage treatments for tired skiers.

ADHD Drugs. Tried them. Worked as advertised but also had some interesting side effects. I’m not sure I can ever get used to the second head that grew out of my shoulders, but whatever….

I think I went a little nuts when the doctor sat me down, showed me a chart and announced that his findings of my symptoms were almost off of the charts. “Here’s where normal people are” he said (or words to that effect) as he pointed to a line across a graph. Then he pointed to a line near the top of the page that went from left to right in a kind of a zigzag pattern “and here’s where you are.” I was more than pleased; I was ecstatic.

There are so many more symptoms to ADHD than just the propensity toward distraction. Many of us – especially ones with a more severe case of ADHD – become debilitated throughout our lives. A great many can’t hold a job, a marriage or maintain our health. Many of us have addiction problems. I don’t mean just drugs; I mean anything under the sun: sexual addictions, problems with booze, problems with almost anything. And so many of us hop from one addiction to another. My dad was an alcoholic, so I was fortunate enough (long before the diagnosis) to recognize that I may have inherited his fascination with booze. So although I enjoy wine, I was smart enough to occasionally go through dry periods “just to make sure”. Then I realized that I was beginning to enjoy pot too much (this was years ago, officer), so I stopped taking any of that for a while. There were a number of other ones – I won’t bother to list them here.

Many of us become adrenaline junkies, often taking horrible chances with our lives while looking for that “high”. Scratch the skin of a person who gets into way too many car accidents and you may find a person with ADHD.

Socially, we are often just a bunch of misfits. I never realized it until my daughter and I started comparing notes. “Dad” she would say “I feel guilty about getting so bored with conversations sometimes”. I would reply “I KNOW, RIGHT? It’s like they’re all ‘blah blah my vacation blah blah” and I’m like ‘what time is it? Oh I’ve got to go'”.

Sometimes I even blogged about it. Like the blog I posted about a guy who was into some of the same types of books I was interested in – only in a kind of steroidal way: it was all he could talk about, and it bored me to tears. I eventually realized that the problem wasn’t him, it was me. (“Sure it was” I hear you say. “That’s so cliché, man”. And okay – so it is. Happens to be true). Normal people – however “normal” is defined – can carry on linear conversations that have beginning, middle and conclusion points. I realized that wasn’t the case with me or my daughter: our conversations were more like exploring birds, hopping from tree branch to tree branch, never landing on the same one twice. A bouquet of non sequiturs, if you will. We eventually realized that we were annoying others who wanted to get in on the conversation but felt they couldn’t. “Can you not stay on the point???” they’d exclaim, exasperated. “What point?” would be our innocent response.

Our conversations often frustrated ourselves as well, but only for brief moments. It kind of went like this: “um, what was I talking about?” “I dunno” *shrug* Whatever it was seemed important; it was a point I was trying to get to, only I was too excited by the process of the conversation and so, as usual, the conversational car left the track and flipped end over end into a field of much more interesting thoughts. Crash and burn.

“Were you aware that there’s an eclipse of the moon tonight?”

“Oh really? I’d love to see that. I can’t stay up late though, I have a test in the morning.”

“Well maybe you don’t have to stay up to watch it. Maybe you could….”

“Oh my God Dad. I remember the last time I saw the Northern Lights. They were so beautiful…”

And on it would go. You can just picture other “normal” people saying “okay – just what the FUCK are you guys talking about?”

We’d both look at each other and smile.

I think even my writing gets affected and infected by this type of meandering. For example: I meant to tell you about my foray into the ADHD drug world.

So the first one was a long-term drug that you have to take every day. It’s supposed to get into your bloodstream as a constant presence and affect what’s called “executive function” – whereby you retain the ability to not only focus, but keep all of the balls in the air at the same time. Most people aren’t aware of it: they put their current thought on a shelf – NOT FORGOTTEN, just placed aside for a moment – while they deal with a more pressing thought. Then when they’re done, they go back to the shelf, bring down the thought and work with it again. With ADHD folk it’s more like we hoof that thought into the outer stratosphere, completely forgotten and rarely ever seen again. It’s not deliberate; it’s just the way our minds tend to work and process. This drug was designed to help patients gain a measure of control.

I have no idea whether it worked or not; I didn’t stay on it long enough. Just a week. Just long enough to notice that I was having a very hard time trying to pee (among other things). It was horrible. I got worried that maybe my body was going through an unwanted change, until I got onto the net and started reading about the side effects. So I dropped that drug like it was a flaming bag of dog poop – and I felt better almost immediately.

I went back to the doc who prescribed another ADHD medication that he promised wouldn’t mess me up so badly. The side effects were minimal and as long as my blood pressure remained under control there wouldn’t be any problem. I went on it for a few weeks and didn’t notice any change in my ADHD symptoms so went back to him. He increased the dosage. I tried it for a few more weeks; still no change. I went back – and this can get boring so let me just say it took a few more visits until we got the dosage right. And then, presto! The required effects kicked in.

I was able to focus; I was able to complete projects; I was able to go places and not leave my iPhone or iPad sitting somewhere for someone to pick up and adopt as their own. (Can’t tell you how many times I’d done that before).

There were other noticeable effects too. I started boring the hell out of myself. Anything I wrote was tedious and long – and complete. I hated my writing. My creativity took a noticeable hit. I figured it was worth the price of being able to be just a little bit linear in thinking again.

Then one day I started having pains in my chest. Severe pains. I went to a walk-in clinic and the doctor said my blood pressure was through the roof. She ordered an EKG (my heart was fine), and then prescribed some nitro. I quickly realized the culprit: the high doses of the ADHD drug was affecting my blood pressure.

So I went off it. Completely. Cold-turkey.

My blood pressure’s back to normal, and my creativity is back.

In talking with a good friend of mine who is also an MD, we seemed to agree that maybe, just maybe, people are designed to be different from each other, and maybe there’s no real need to alter our behaviour (or as we called it, get into “social engineering”).

I only know I’m enjoying the crap out of life right now, and it’s doubtful that I’ll ever seek help for my ADHD again. (Never say never though).

Final note: I hear you saying “dude, your creativity can’t be all that great. You rarely write a new blog.” You would be correct: my blogs are too few and far between and I’m planning to change that. But – and this is a huge thing – I’m still writing. I’ve been employed for a few months as a critic for the popular site TVFanatic.com – and I write a weekly review of two shows: Criminal Minds and NCIS. Additionally, I’ve had the opportunity to interview two of the Criminal Minds stars too: Matthew Gray Gubler (who plays Dr. Reid) and Joe Mantegna (who plays Agent Rossi). If you want to check it out – no pressure! – you’ll find the reviews at Criminal Minds and NCIS. (My name on there is Douglas Wolfe.)

In the meantime, maybe I’ll just keep playing at life and forget about the ADHD meds. Frankly I’m having too much fun without them.

Misophonia: People who have misophonia are most commonly annoyed, or even enraged, by such ordinary sounds as other people eating, breathing, sniffing, or coughing; certain consonants; or repetitive sounds. Intense anxiety and avoidant behavior may develop, which can lead to decreased socialization. Some people may feel the compulsion to mimic what they hear

I had no idea this was a *thing*. Apparently I’ve got it. Somehow I doubt that pushing the guy’s face into his bowl of crunchy cereal (so he can *really* get a good taste of it) is a viable prescription.

(Still, it’s a good thought)

People – too many it seems – are completely unaware of their sounds. The smack-smack-smacking of lips as folk chow down on their copious amounts of popcorn are just so damned unavoidable. But that’s okay – I enjoy popcorn too, and find a need to chew carefully when I eat it. Wouldn’t want to inadvertently be the catalyst for a homicidal episode from an overly annoyed fellow patron.

The occupant one stall over in the cubicle farm is completely ignorant of his sounds. And he has so VERY VERY many of them, and they all start around 10:00 a.m. every day. The guy starts out with some sort of crunchy cereal – which he consumes with a metal spoon from a ceramic bowl. I know because I recognize the sounds clearly: the spoon as well as the damned clanky bowl.

When he’s done he apparently has a problem with some of the foodstuffs that don’t make it down his massive gullet – which seem obvious because he suddenly starts up with the teeth-sucking. Have you ever heard someone sucking their teeth? It’s amazingly disgusting. Pfft! Pffffffffffffft!

Then there’s a myriad of other sounds. Throat-clearing, heavy breathing, coughing. (I’m guessing he doesn’t swallow normally either – hence the need to clear all of his passages of errant food stuffs.)

Once done, you’d think that would be it wouldn’t you?

Oh but you’d be so very very wrong. Because you know he has to phone someone.

Home boy doesn’t have a normal voice. No, his voice is unnecessarily loud. I don’t mean normal loud. I mean vibrantly dramatically loud. And God help us if he hears a joke because boy oh boy – he’s going to LAUGH. Not a gentle dignified laugh or chuckle either. An outright guffaw that would raise the dead and cause sheep and cows to snort in alarm. It’s not a laugh you share either – it’s a laugh that makes you piss yourself and run in fear.

One morning he was so bad that I honestly felt myself going insane. I wanted to call my boss and talk with him but he was offline. I wanted to talk with anyone but there was no one around. I could visualize myself picking up my laptop and throwing it hard across the room. Honestly – I’ve never felt that way before.

Someone offered me this advice: “when he starts up, just take a break and go to the washroom.”

My sincere response: “I’m not allowed to spend six hours in the washroom.”

****

You know – there have been many times I’ve found myself hyper-aware of annoying sounds. Maybe they’re only annoying to me though. My dad – back when he was still alive – used to hack and cack in the washroom every morning. He’d do this long dramatic throat clearing, and it would sound as if he was fixin’ to throw up the contents of his cavernous stomach. Only he’d get so far and then not actually do it. It was worse than hearing a cat coughing up a hairball. “HACK HACK *cough* HACK HAAAAAAACK!!!!!” – long 20 second count – then: “*spit*”

Used to make me almost offer up a sympathy barf.

(Sorry. I know that’ s disgusting. Now you know how I feel.)

Just a guess here but….I’ll just bet that this “misophonia” thing is exasperated if you have ADHD. In that you’re so easily distracted by anything or everything. So obviously if certain noises unduly annoy you it’s a fair bet that such noises are naturally going to catch your attention at the most inopportune of times.

For a while I was on ADHD meds and these noises didn’t annoy me nearly so much. I was aware of them – but I was able to concentrate at the task at hand, so the noises became background white noise. Time passed and I found a need to stop the meds – and the annoyances came back.

What about you? Is this topic completely new to you – or do you too suffer from this social noise pollution?

Laptop for work? “Got it in the laptop bag. I’ll put the iPad in with it.”

iPhone? “Got it.”

Call the cab. “Ok. I’ll connect up with my bluetooth earpiece and talk to them while doing a last minute check around the place.”

*Calls cab.*

I go out. Lock both locks on the door and walk down the hallway to the elevator. An older woman smiles at me. I nod back and say “hi there.”

I hear the elevator. *Ding!*

The door opens. Something twigs in my brain – so I ignore the elevator and go back to my apartment. Unlock both locks and walk through the apartment with my boots on. Grab the new combination lock so I can head to the gym today. (Lost my last one on my trip to Tofino).

Re-lock the apartment and, as the elevator opens, my phone rings. I tap the bluetooth earpiece and hear “hi there. You called for a taxi?”

“Yup. On my way down now.”

I jump in the cab and, just as it leaves the on-ramp and hits the highway, I realize that I forgot my security card for work. So I think “nevermind. I’ll just have to find a public washroom if I need it, and make sure that I don’t leave the building after 4:30 (unless going home) because I won’t be able to get back in.” Good. It sucks, but at least it’s a plan. I’m not spending the money to tell the cab to go back.

And…just as I get in the door at work I realize that my security card is safe in my laptop back. I forgot it was there. “Oh good.” I think. ” Serendipity. Thank God for small blessings.”

I get to my desk, plug in the laptop, secure it to the locking cable and turn it on.

I sit back and, after waiting for it to boot up, I finally see the login screen.

Sort of. It’s kind of hard to read.

Ah. I need my glasses. I reach into my pocket. Earphones, iPhone….. no glasses. “I wonder where they are?”

They’re sitting on the counter at home. Right where I left them.

I think “what the fuck is WRONG with me?”

“Why is my brain such a massive blur today?

“Did I take my ADHD meds?”

I did. It was almost the first thing I did today.

Good thing I have an doctor appointment for tomorrow – because it looks as though they’re not working anymore.

I think “well, I’ll have to buy some reading glasses from the pharmacy across the street.”

So I do. Bring them back and sit back down to the computer.

Uh oh. There’s a plastic thing securing them – I’ll have to cut it off.

I get the scissors, cut the tag and put them on.

My vision is blurry.

So I take them off, clean them, put them back on.

Still blurry.

Take them off and look at them. There’s a big scratch across one of the lens. Apparently when I cut the tag, I was way too impatient. Pretty much madly assaulted the $35.00 glasses during my haste to use them – and now they’re worth nothing.

Put them back on and decide to use them for the rest of the day.

Later, I meet my friend for lunch. She says about seven things in the space of a paragraph, and as she says EACH.INDIVIDUAL.THING – my brain captures a relating thought, all of which I want to say to her. When she stops speaking, I can’t remember a single one of them.

Like this:

If you could write a letter to yourself when you were sixteen, what would you say?

Joseph Galliano, an editor, has compiled a list of letters from people many of us know, and has created a book from that collection, entitled “Dear Me. A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self”.

So…..

What would I say?

It would go something like this:

—————————–

Hi there. There’s some stuff you should know.

First off: trust your instincts. Remember how troubled you felt when that guy came to pick up your sister for a date? Remember how normal he seemed, and yet you couldn’t shake off a feeling of danger? Well, sadly, you were right. Your sis was OK and everything, but it got pretty dicey for a while there. The man was dangerous and you were right to be afraid for her. You have an instinct that borders on ESP. Don’t worry that it sounds all airy-fairy – just go with it. Trust yourself. It doesn’t mean you should quickly judge everyone. You’ll get older and wiser and soon you’ll be able to differentiate between prejudice and empathy. You have the empathic spark though – don’t forget it.

Oh, and to help you along: here’s one indicator of the difference. Empathic awareness is insistent and relentless and often has no bearing on perceived logic at the time. Prejudice on the other hand, isn’t nearly as urgent, and it tends to rationalize – usually based upon someone else’s opinion, presented as fact. It’s almost a form of laziness. You’ll understand. It’s just a matter of time and unending curiosity.

Which brings me to another point. Remember how your dad criticized you for thinking all the time? Remember how weird that seemed? Well he was wrong. This is actually one of your best qualities, and it will serve you well. Though you’re not great at school (and by the way, forget about trying to memorize names and dates – I’ll tell you why in a minute), your curiosity will take you through life in an amazing way. You’ll learn so much, just because you thought to question. And you know what else? This is a side benefit of your curiosity: people love to talk. Especially about themselves. So ask them, and just enjoy their experience. It’s sort of what makes you tick.

Which brings me to another point. If you’re curious enough, and ask the right people, you can probably avoid a lot of years of spinning your wheels in frustration. Start slowly, but work on it constantly. Ask questions from people who don’t share your religious beliefs. Get to know what life is like for people who don’t go to your church. It’s important. Read some of the great philosophers (if you can – I know how hard it is to get into intricately detailed books. There’s a reason for that. More later.).

There is such a great value and such pleasure available to you when you learn to open your mind up a bit.

Oh, and something else: remember how you sought out the advice of a school counsellor during those times when your father was creating a living hell on earth at home? Remember how you sat in her office and told her about how he would get so drunk and so angry, and everyone was afraid – and about how you called the cops on him?

Well that was a good starting point for you, but it wasn’t the end. In between all of that crap you sort of got lost. You thought your identity was with the church, because people there were really nice, and they welcomed you so gladly. Their hearts were real, and they really did like you, but you made a tiny little mistake: you thought you had to be like them. I mean, exactly like them. You mimicked them so closely that you really had no idea who you were. Oh, I know you think you did, but trust me, you didn’t. You tried so hard to be the social chameleon out of habit: you knew that in order to survive in that hellish house, you had to figure out what The Beast wanted at any given time, and manoeuvre yourself accordingly. You learned how to placate and accommodate, as this is what your eight year old self figured out, to survive. You knew if you did this, maybe The Beast wouldn’t hurt anyone. You had no idea back then, that what you did didn’t really matter. He was looking for an excuse to lash out.

I think you should take the time to see a doctor and get yourself sorted out. You lack one major thing right now – self awareness. Once you have that, you’ll be on your way.

When you’re talking with the doc, also share with him about how much you hate school projects, and why. Tell him too about all of your clumsiness and accidents. It’s important. Tell him about how you daydream all the time, and forget so many things. Tell him about those comments in your report cards, where the teacher says “could do better if he applied himself”. About how you’re always late, and always always ALWAYS have to run to school every morning to get to band class, because you’re just not able to ever leave on time. What you’re going through is not normal – and hopefully the doc will pick up on that.

Pay attention to what you like in school, and what you don’t like. Indulge your love of music and dramatic arts. It’s part of who you are. Find ways to get more involved. Forget about what others tell you that you *should* do, relative to class courses. Take up the drama class, and join the drama club too. There’s a brilliant teacher there – get to know him, even though he’s a little frightening, because he’s abrupt and cold, and because he’s really big, like your dad.

Even though your history teacher is amazing – because he brings history to life so well, – you’re going to find yourself hating it in Grade 13. The new teacher will want the class to memorize names and dates for everything – and you’d rather get into a fight with a school bully than do that. The daydreaming at this point will be your downfall and you’ll want to give up. And maybe you should. But not for long. Being a kid, you think that you should be able to do everything, or nothing. You’re kind of black and white like that. It won’t occur to you (which is why I’m telling you now) that everyone has strengths in certain things, while they suck at others. You’re never going to be an academic – you’re intelligent enough, but it’s just not who you are. You won’t work in the trades either. You don’t know it, but your strength is in people, and in entertainment, and in the arts. This is not a bad thing. These are the things that excite you, and get your heart racing.

There are other things to tell you but they should be a surprise. You’re going to go through some heavy stuff, but if you follow all of the above advice, you’ll at least establish a firm and trustworthy foundation for dealing with them. Some of the harsh stuff will bring some interesting surprises that you’ll love.

One last thought: some of the best plans never work out. What is true for you today might not be true tomorrow. Trust yourself, and trust your instincts. The one seed for your tree of life never changes: you must live. Not just survive, and not just tolerate. You probably have no idea what I mean by this, so search out a book, called “Jitterbug Perfume”. Read it one time so that you satisfy your curiosity about the plot. And when it’s done, read it again.

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So. What would you write to yourself? Better yet – if you feel like it, write a blog, and provide a link to it in the comments here.